Pendulum
by Diary of Kear
Summary: Because no matter how many times he made her hate him, despise him, and want to kill him, he always did something to make her come back. Like a pendulum. Rated M for cursing, violence, and maybe later chapters. *Wink wink*
1. First Glance

It was dark. Unnervingly so. The chains that bound Sakura's hands together behind her back smelled so strongly of metal, she could taste the metallic rust in her clothed mouth. She felt a rag gagging her, tied too forcefully around her mouth, coming to a very tight knot at the base of her skull where it pressed into the sensitive skin, leaving a rather nasty purple bruise. Her legs were tied together and in front of her with rope so thick she could barely wrap her hand around it the first time she tried tugging it off, before they slammed her wrists to the wall, telling her to not move or else, and securely bound her hands with the thick metal rings. The rope dug tightly into her skin. She couldn't feel her legs, and she could only imagine what her feet looked like by this time. She didn't even know if she had them anymore.

And so she sat in the cell, screaming until her voice ran horse and she could no longer make a sound. She then proceeded to thrash around as much as she could until a whip came out, and she could smell the blood running down her arm before she could feel it. After a few more hits, she simply slumped on the floor and resigned herself to riding this out, waiting until she had a chance to escape from this flea-infested rat hole or someone, by some strange force of nature, came to rescue her. She was pretty sure the latter was nearly impossible, seeing as no one knew where she was, and she doubted many would come to find her if they did. The only one who might've died long ago, so she was almost certainly looking at a hopeless situation. There was no way out, and here was where she was going to die.

Until he came.

A muffled grunt in the dark and the sound of a body hitting the cold stone beside her echoed through her prison cell. A newly captured soldier no doubt. Well, at least she wasn't alone anymore.

"What do you think you're doing, you bastard?!" a male voice called out, not quite at the age of adulthood yet. He had a very pretty voice. "It's me, I just―hminuhumphargka!"

"Yeah, right," came the gruff snort of a man, who had evidently gagged her newfound roommate and, from the sound of it, thrown him against the wall. "Just keep talking and we'll see how long you live." There was a strangled cry from the younger man, and then the scuff of fading footsteps as they exited the cell. The iron door slammed shut, shaking the entire room.

She closed her blinded eyes tighter, wishing they had impaired her sense of hearing as well.

The young man sighed, and she heard him shift against the wall, trying to get comfortable. _Good luck with that_, she thought. _Three months at this place, and I still haven't found a comfortable place inside these walls._

She heard a small sniff, then a light intake of breath. "Is anyone there?"

_Do I really smell that bad? _She asked herself with a sigh. Her voice cracked as she spoke for the first time in what felt like forever. The words scathed her throat as they escaped her lips, but they came out halfway intelligible. "Yeah. Who are you?"

The young man snorted. "That's for f to know. Who are _you_?"

"Hey, keep quiet in there!" the harsh-voiced guard outside our cell barked. A metallic clang rang through the cell, and she winced. She hated it when he beat on the bars. It made her feel like a fish in a fishbowl.

After her cellmate breathed a few choice words, his attention was directed back at her. "You sound familiar."

"I've been around," I answered him in a low, raspy voice.

She heard him shift again, breath in like he was going to answer, but then thought better of it. He exhaled a frustrated sigh, and then was silent.

***

There was a mocking chortle. "Alright, you worms. I've got some good news for you." The doors to our cell clanked open as footsteps echoed through the small room.

She recognized that voice. He was the head warden. Shoot. Whenever he came, it usually meant that someone was being sent to execution. He was just sick and twisted enough to say that was good news. Though, as she mentally brushed over herself, the thought of death didn't seem so disagreeable.

The warden's voice broke her from her contemptuous thoughts. "Or maybe it's bad news, for one of you at least. We've just gotten a new bit of information on you two. It seems you've encountered each other before." He chuckled, and she could almost _see_ the slimy sneer spread proudly across his face. "Guard! Remove their blindfolds."

His footsteps began fading away as the guard approached us, but his pace slowed just for a moment as he muttered lowly to the other guard, "Keep them both under close watch. We're not above making a deal with them to get them out of that cell if they're willing to give out information."

A large figure hovered over her, and every innate instinct of the shinobi told her she should peel out of there before he could get any closer, but no matter how much she struggled, he still managed to grasp the cloth around her head and jerk it up, tearing at her dirty hair and causing her to hiss.

Slowly, her eyes opened. The first thing she noticed, though her vision was still slightly impaired from lack of use, was that the cell was darker than it was when she first got here a few months ago. It must be night, or maybe there was a storm.

The man, she could now see, was a large, thickly muscled brute force kind of guy. Nothing she couldn't handle on any given day. But, of course, with those stupid chakra sucking ropes, there wasn't much she could do as she watched a creepy, dirty grin stretch across his face before he turned away.

Sakura's eyes scanned around the cell briefly, a light shiver passing over her body. It wasn't night ― she could see the sun shining faintly through small cracks and the very tiniest of windows ― but a chill still crept over her body.

That's when her eyes turned to him. That blonde hair. Those blue eyes. Where had she seen them before? They seemed so familiar. Gradually, her eyes widened as recognition seeped through me.

No.

_No._

It could _not _be _him_.

His not-so-subtle sneer told her the feeling was mutual. The man who held his blindfold in his hand exited the room, leaving just us. Just _her_, alone with _him_.

Deidara tried to choke out a snarl, though the sound came out as more of a desperate whimper. He struggled viciously against the metal cuffs that held his arms. No more than a few inches apart, but to no avail.

She sighed as her eyes brushed over his stressed form. It would figure that her medical instincts would be kicking in right around the time she saw an enemy, yet she couldn't muster up the strength to save Naruto.

Deidara's dark, dirty face looked up at her with fiery eyes. His uncharacteristically blonde hair had grown over an inch since his battle with Gaara, but time hadn't changed him much otherwise, except for the obvious dirt and a few new scars. He still held that superior, pompous, explosive glint in his eyes. As he finally slammed himself against the cool stone wall and came to a rest, she noticed (with quite a bit of shock, mind you) that the guards had let him pass with his scope over his eye, obscured by his bangs. Surely they should have noticed that and confiscated it!

"Witch," he breathed darkly, his sinister gaze directed pointedly at her. "You were the one who killed Master Sasori. I'll kill you!"

She resisted the temptation to laugh at his bold words. He couldn't kill her. Not with those stupid hand-mouths of his, not without any clay. And who was he to be talking?! "You killed Gaara," shffe replied simply with a foreboding undertone that she hope came through to that thick-skulled, worthless excuse for human life.

He was silent a moment before he grunted roughly, his muscles relaxing only the slightest bit. He looked down. "But _he_ came back."

"No thanks to you!" she spat viciously, tearing at her bindings. Oh, if only she could get her hands on him! "You killed him because of some stupid chakra source you power-hungry Akatsuki members crave. You didn't even care that you were taking away a human life!"

"And what about you?" he asked in a hushed tone. Then, suddenly, his head flew up and a snarl appeared on his features. "Was it really so hard to just block Master Sasori in that cave? I was the one who ultimately brought Gaara to his demise; you should have gone after me! Master Sasori didn't do anything! You Leaf shinobi'll stand up on a soapbox and preach until you're hoarse, but you kill innocent people as much as any village. Master Sasori and I were just following orders, the same way you used to. What does it matter to a shinobi who's actually right or wrong? You live to serve your alliance, and never even think that maybe, just _maybe_, your village is in the wrong! That's why I joined the Akatsuki in the first place! To get away from those _damned villages!_"

Deidara breathed angrily and put his head down, the rant having obviously exhausted him. His shoulders slumped tiredly against the wall. What a fight he must have put up, for him to be worn out after a small speech.

Sakura bit her lip, not sure if she was angry or awed. The man before her had killed people for fun, toyed with human emotions, and generally caused havoc wherever he went. And yet, somewhere deep inside, there was an artist. A poet.

And what was a poet, anyway?

* * *

What is a poet? An unhappy person who conceals profound anguish in his heart but whose lips are so formed that as sighs and cries pass over them they sound like beautiful music.

**~Soren Kierkegaard**

**A/N****: So, this is going to be my first multi-chapter story on fanfiction. I'm not proclaiming to be any great fanfiction author (certianly not like **Kaline Reine or Cynchick, both of whose writings I absolutely adore X3), but I know I don't deserve, "Your writing sucks. FAKE AND GAY!!!"

Shut up, troll. .

HOWEVER, if you happen to have any comments that would help me _improve _my writing (or comments that will over inflate my ego XP) feel free to share them!

Until then,

Kear Thyn lufs you. X3


	2. Second Chance

Sakura blinked her bleary eyes open as a strange light stung her tired eyes. She groaned briefly and put her hand over her eyes to block out said annoyance.

Wait.

Her _hands_?

With an inward gasp of relief, Sakura forced her eyes open and stared at the hand that covered her face. Sometimes while she was asleep, someone had untied her.

Then the bright light moved, and Sakura's eyes scouted the area, ominously dark and void of life or movement. Hadn't she had a cellmate?

She sniffed the air faintly. He was still there and, as her eyes adjusted to the sudden lack of light (she refused to think that she was surrounded by darkness), she saw Deidara crouched low against a wall, also untied, his eyes flickering from the groggy Sakura to the poor excuse for a window far in the right corner of the cell.

He gestured toward the window with his head and mumbled something Sakura couldn't understand. Then, his dark silhouette motioned her forward with his hand.

Sakura bit her lip roughly and shook her head. She had no reason to trust this man. He was Akatsuki! He killed Gaara!

And she had killed Sasori.

He growled lightly and, with cat-like ease that Sakura envied, rose from his crouch. Damn fool, woman. His eyes shifted to the door of the cell before, with a frustrated sigh, he slowly padded across the room to where Sakura still sat against the wall.

Her jade eyes surveyed him wearily as he approached and knelt down in front of her so they were face to face, his body towering over hers. His eyes were set hard and his mouth pulled into a tired frown, masking his normally striking effeminate features. The edges of his eyes were dark, like he was wearing eyeliner. She supposed the dark rims of his eyes had a purpose in the Rock village, but why have it on in a nearly lightless cell? And where would he get it anyway?

Sakura, with a dusty blush, averted her eyes when she realized she'd been starting at his face the entire time.

"Look, girly, I'm sure you know by now that I despise your very existence, but I need you," he hissed with a mixture of frustration and desperation in his cold eyes. "We're breaking out."

Sakura had thought about this long and hard. She'd been here much longer than Deidara, who was only recently captured and stuffed into a cell with her, and knew the layout better than he did. She also knew that was he was attempting was darn near impossible. There were always multiple sentries on watch, and nearly an army in reserve near the prison. If they tried to break out as they were, chakra-less and weapon-less, there'd be kunai holes in them before they'd even take five steps. Whatever Deidara's supposed plan was, it was destined to fail, but Sakura knew she had to ask anyway. "Just exactly how, genius, do you expect to do that?" Sakura motioned to the window. "It's not like we can fit through that, and even if we could. Someone would catch us. We'd die before we got through the first set of guarded gates."

"The records I read on you said you were an intelligent shinobi, but you're not exactly the brightest crayon in the box, are you? Did you train under Tsunade?"

Sakura suppressed and angry growl and was forced to merely glower darkly at him with her arms crossed over her chest, staring up at his hovering form, her whispers taking on a more hissing-like quality. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"Stupid girl," he muttered lowly with a shake of his head. "You have no creative imagination, yeah."

"Just tell me already!" she demanded a little too loudly. Deidara's head snapped to the cell door and one of his hands automatically rose to her mouth, stopping just short of her lips. Sakura could see the mouths on his hands, which she had named hand-mouthy thingies (for lack of a scientific term, of course), and pushed her head harder against the concrete of the jail cell, only managing to back up a few millimeters.

After several tense seconds, he relaxed. Slowly, his glaze slid over to her with an irritated sigh. "The guard might be a stupid fool who sleeps on his job, but he's still a shinobi. He'll hear you if you keep making all this unnecessary racket."

"I wouldn't make it if you'd just tell me your damn idea," she muttered, pushing Deidara's hand away from her face. "If you're planning on breaking out ―" a warning glare from Deidara told her to speak quieter "― there's no way you'll succeed, cuz―"

Deidara held one finger up, his eyes flickering around occasionally. It reminded Sakura of the drug addicts she'd sometimes get at the Konoha Hospital, who always seemed so jumpy and restless. "We're gonna go out with a bang, yeah."

Sakura's eyes widened. "You're going to _blow it up_?! You'll blow this whole place to smithereens!" She was silent for a moment. "Besides, it's not like you have any of that explosive clay of yours."

A knowing smirk spread across Deidara's face. "You think so, yeah?" Slowly, he made his way over to his side of the cell and picked a small pile of sand and dirt up. He returned to his original spot, though this time sitting next to Sakura against the wall. He held up the earth in his hand, showing it proudly to her as a little boy would show his mother a bunny he found. "I can make explosive clay out of anything. That's the problem with you damn Konoha shinobi. You always think you know everything."

"It'll be too loud, and it'll blow the top off this place. Your explosions aren't exactly subtle," she argued, memories of their past encounter passing hazily through her mind. She hadn't actually seen his explosions, but from the way Naruto had described it and the clear destruction that was the aftermath, Sakura had a pretty good idea of what they were like. Loud, fiery, 'artistic', and generally everything that wasn't _stealth_. "As soon as the wall explodes, the guards will come rushing to our cell. We'd never make it out alive, even if you had enough clay, or _chakra _for that matter, to make one of those clay birds, which ―" she glanced from the small amount of clay in his hands to the chakra ropes around his wrists "― you don't.

Deidara snorted. "First of all, it wouldn't be art if ―" The sound of footsteps cut him off, and Sakura and Deidara sat frozen, old training sessions kicking in as their ears saw what their eyes couldn't.

Gradually, the footsteps moved away from their direction until they faded entirely. Sakura's shoulders slumped in relief before Deidara's did, who was still tense even when Sakura turned her head to look at him. "I think he's gone."

"Or he wants us to think he's gone," Deidara murmured, almost too low for her to hear him. "We'll talk about this tomorrow."

"But wait!" Sakura breathed, but Deidara had already moved to the other side of the cell and was sitting against the wall, much the same way he had when he was next to her. Sakura's eye twitched, knowing that for her to move that fast and stealthily, she'd have to use chakra, and he seemed to be able to do so without it.

Her head lay back against the cool concrete of the prison cell, her hair a mess around her face. She evaluated her situation. Trapped in a prison cell in a foreign country with a known psycho-killer, wearing tattered rags, _feeling _her chakra being sucked out but maintained, the utter feeling of hopelessness, the longing for her friends again. She almost smiled.

Tomorrow would be break out day, eh?

***

Sakura awoke again in the middle of the day, this time not blinded by a sudden light but instead stunned by the darkness. It must have been noon, and though her eyes searched frantically around the area, she saw nothing but complete and utter nothingness. She struggled, but couldn't move. Breathed, but no air would come, her hysterical screaming unheard to her ears, which detected absolutely _nothing_. Until…

"Sakura," an all-too familiar voice from her youth spoke from somewhere above her, its smooth texture out of place in this rough and jaded world she lived in now.

She screamed more, but no sound came out. She couldn't answer him, couldn't he see her struggling, screaming, crying? Would he come back to save her after all this time of leaving her here to die?

"Sakura."

It was a different voice this time, one more aged, but more recent in her memory. Her screaming receded slightly. Where had she heard that voice before?

When her name was repeated for the second time by that new voice, she felt herself jerk to full consciousness. Her eyes snapped open and she gasped as air finally filled her lungs.

Standing over her was the form of Deidara, a mixture of annoyance and worry clear on his face. The girl had been thrashing around on the floor of the jail cell for some time now, her mouth open like she was screaming. He rolled his eyes. Nightmares at twenty-three?

Sakura gasped in air one final time before gradually returning to her normal breathing pattern, her hand pressed tightly over her chest as she assessed any damage she had taken to her diaphragm. There was none.

She slouched against the wall once her heartbeat had slowed down and Deidara had returned to the other side of the room. She had been so close to him.

Sasuke…

* * *

**A/N: **And so here's chapter two of _Pendulum_. Definitely not my best work. . In case I didn't make it clear (which I don't think I did), Sakura was having a nightmare of losing all her five senses. I know I didn't mention taste or touch, but really, what is there to taste or touch in a dream?

And I know I didn't mention it before, but the title was inspired by Linkin Park's _In The End_.


	3. Breaking Out

Deidara's shuffling woke Sakura from her graciously dreamless sleep. She blinked bleary-eyed at him as she got her bearings and the world around her came into focus. Her gaze shifted from Deidara's moving form to the window. The sun's rays barely touched the small opening, much less let in a sufficient amount of light.

Sakura had asked Deidara about her chakra ropes. When she awoke yesterday morning, they were gone. Last night, though, they were present again, but cut so that her wrists weren't bound together. He'd said that he bit through his ropes with his hands and did the same to hers in preparation of the escape. However, sometime during the night, a guard must have noticed this and replaced them, so cutting them in half would have to do for now, so they wouldn't get suspicious.

Movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she switched her view from the window to Deidara.

Deidara was busying himself with that stupid dirt pile of his. Using his chakra, a feat Sakura thought surely to be impossible with those stupid chakra ropes around their wrists, he had constructed a small clay bird of a brownish colour, almost like a dirty version of one of his earlier specimens. It was only a couple inches high and wide, but the distant smile that held his features was in remembrance of a much larger, grader sculpture. One that was supposed to be his end. One that failed.

He frowned.

His brows drew together and he molded faster and harder. It was a one-time slip up. The one time that really counted. Still, it wasn't his fault. How was he supposed to know the Uchiha brat had some type of teleportation jutsu, and that somehow, he had got caught up in the technique and been teleported to some foreign land?

Sakura cleared her throat, making Deidara halt his actions and glare up at her furiously with misdirected anger. "Deidara, if you push on that too hard, you're going to make it blow up."

Deidara growled silently and ignored her. What did she know of his art anyway? She was just a miserable little girl who got caught up in a game of ninja that had gone too far. She couldn't understand him. Not now, not ever.

He pushed into his sculpture harder.

0o0o0o0o0o0o

Sakura let out a breathy sigh as she watched the moon fall slightly behind a cloud. Deidara said there was only a few more minutes until everything was completely calmed down, and that's when they would make their escape. Sakura still thought it was a stupid idea. Knowing the Cloud Village, they'd be intercepted as soon as they stepped outside the building. Or better yet, shot down with a flurry of kunai.

Deidara hadn't said much since her recent nightmare. To her, it was a blurry memory that nagged at the edge of her mind, yet she couldn't place her finger on it. It seemed to really bother Deidara though.

"It's time," Deidara said from her side where he had been lying against the wall with his eyes closed, listening for any movement. His eyes slid open as he placed a hand behind him on the wall to steady himself as he rose to his feet. He looked down at her and whispered, "You coming or not?"

She nodded and copied his movement in an attempt to be as quiet as possible. Deidara was already by the window, taking the small bird from a dark corner of the cell where he had hidden it and placing it on the windowsill. He glanced back at her, silently asking her if she wanted to go through with this. She nodded. He turned back to the window and took several steps back, the smile on his face clear as day even in the dingy light of the cell. He clasped his hands together in an all-too-familiar handsign.

"Art's a bang, baby!"

The wall in front of them exploded, showering both of them with a gray cloud of dust and rubble. Sakura coughed and put a hand over her mouth in an attempt to block some of the dust out while Deidara just stood there, his eyes wide and a satisfied smirk planted smugly on his face. He was in his element.

Almost as soon as they had blown out a huge chunk of the wall, alarms started going off all over the jail. A voice came over the PA system. _Red alert, the Maximum Security Ward has been infiltrated. I repeat, the Maximum Security Ward his been infiltrated._

Deidara snorted as he made his way into the hole formed by the explosion. "They can't even believe that someone in the prison _actually _broke out. 'Infiltrated' my ass." Deidara grabbed the edge of the stone hole for support and jumped over the pile of debris, landing cleanly on the other side of the hole. He glanced over his shoulder at Sakura, who still stood there, looking shaken. "I think this is the part where we're supposed to escape."

Sakura blinked and nodded, rushing out of the cell after him. It had been so long since she'd ever even thought about the idea of freedom, about a life on the other side of those bars― the notion shocked her. Deidara ran out in front of her and made for the main gates. Sakura was about to head after him when she heard shouts from behind her.

Two prison guards were gawking at the hole they'd created in the cell wall. That only held their attention momentarily though. As soon as their eyes snapped on Sakura, one of them shouted orders she couldn't hear over the alarms and the other two ran after her, one with a sword drawn and the other a handful of kunai.

Sakura ran.

Sakura wasn't a slow runner by any means. She'd never been the top of her class in speed ― that was always Kiba or Naruto, the hyperactive little knuckleheads ― but she was by no means slow. She vaulted off the ground after Deidara without so much as a second glance back at the guards.

Deidara was already at the gate and scaling it, a chain link fence between him and freedom. As Sakura ran toward him, she realized she was smiling despite herself. They were almost free. They were _going _to be free. They were ―

She blacked out.

********

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* * *

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**A/N: **Sorry I haven't posted in like…forever. XD Finals and such. It's summer now though, so I'll be able to post a lot more. I'm thinking…twice a week? I don't know, I'll try.

I hope you guys liked this chapter of _Pendulum_. I wrote it at 10:30 at night when all I wanted to do was sleep, so it's probably doesn't make any sense to a coherent person unlike myself.

For some reason, FF won't except my transition symbol (***), so I had to put this stupid thing: 0o0o0o0o. -_-'' Sigh.

**Edit: **Thanks YoH KiRi for finding my typo in the first paragraph. You rock. X3 I put "he" instead of "her". I really need a Beta reader. XD

Questions? Comments? REVIEW and I'll love you forever! :D

~Kear Thyn


	4. Reasonable Doubt

Sakura noticed, with a disgruntled silent sigh, that she was always waking to weird things these days. Evidently, today was no exception. She was alone and the room was dark, but this couldn't be her prison cell. After all, what kind of prisons had comfy beds for their inmates?

Slowly, her jade eyes traveled over the room. She could only see a few things in the near darkness, like the bed she was laying on and the table beside it, but she could sense that the room was quite crowded. Object lay strewn across the floor and hung up on the walls every which way.

Sakura groaned as she sat up, the covers above her falling down to pool around her waist as she rubbed sleepiness from her eyes. She had no idea where she was or what she was doing there, but she wasn't in prison any longer. That meant she could get back to Konoha as soon as possible and report her status to Lady Tsunade.

Sakura's gaze fell as her thoughts turned to Konoha. It had been nearly four months since she'd been captured by the stupid Cloud ninja. Her friends, she was sure, were worried about her, Naruto the most, but her sensei was probably mad with worry that she kept bottled up inside.

She slid her legs out from under the covers and her feet connected with the polished wooden floor. _Don't worry Lady Tsunade, I'm coming back._ She stood up, slightly wobbly from her sleep, and surveyed herself. She was still in her prison uniform (good to know that wasn't just some unpleasant dream) and still very much dirty, but she could get new cloths and clean herself once she figured out just where the hell she was.

Just then, the door at the far side of the room swung open and there stood the _last _person she wanted to see.

"You shouldn't be out of bed yet, yeah."

"Where'd you take me?" Sakura asked heatedly, suddenly extremely weary about her surroundings. What if he had taken her to some hotel at the far end of one of the shinobi countries and planned to do away with her?

Deidara rolled his eyes and leaned against the doorframe, supported by his upper arm. "Where do you think? C'mon Sakura, you're a shinobi. Figure it out, yeah."

Sakura's eyes swept the room one more time. "I don't have time for this bull. Just tell me where I ―" Realization swept over Sakura like a waterfall. Her face drained of color and she had to work to suppress a well-deserved gasp. "No. No! You did _not _take me to the―"

"Akatsuki base," Deidara smirked, pushing away from the doorframe and walking towards her. "I obviously couldn't return you to Konoha― you know too much about my bloodline limit, yeah. And besides, it'd be nice to have a medic around to heal everyone when they come back from missions."

Sakura's brow furrowed and she snarled under her breath. "And what makes you think I'll help you?"

Deidara shrugged. "Lots of reasons actually. We have no actual _need _of you, so we really could just kill you anytime and be done with it, but for some reason or another Leader-sama wants you alive, yeah." His expression turned smug and he crossed his arms. "Unless, of course, you are uncooperative."

"I'll kill the first Akatsuki I get my hands on," she vowed, her muscles aching to reach out and punch Deidara across the face so hard, his dentist would wake up.

Deidara rolled his eyes and turned away from the pink haired kunoichi. He started toward the door but stopped in the exit way, one hand firmly around the door handle. He glanced back at her with a smile that would melt most girls' hearts. "Sakura, _I _was the first Akatsuki you got your hands on, and I'm not dead yet." With that, he shut the door behind himself, leaving a fuming Sakura to scream bloody murder at the door.

Sakura fell back down onto the bed and swore at the ceiling. Finally, just when she thought she was free of imprisonment, the freaking _Akatsuki _capture her. That was it. The universe hated her. But hey, what had she ever done to the universe? She'd been good as a child, the top of her class, and always worked hard towards being the best at anything she did. She trained diligently under Lady Tsunade to become one of the strongest kunoichi of her day and age. She faced life or death situations on a daily basis. But apparently the greater forces didn't constitute that as a reasonable excuse to give her at least a _little _happiness in this forsaken world.

She sighed and rolled over so that her head was buried in the pillow. Her situation still sucked, but at least it beat being held hostage in a tiny prison cell of concrete, wearing scraps of cloths and living off the bare minimum amount of food and water. Here, with her eyes closed and her thoughts lucid, she could almost imagine she was back in her apartment in Konoha, just getting off from a long shift at the hospital and eager to get some shut eye before her next mission.

She opened her eyes.

Still at the Akatsuki base.

Damn.

She sighed and sat up in the bed, her fingers drawing lazy circles on the dark red bed sheets she was laying on. Really, she should be thinking of a plan to get out of here. After all, what was Sakura if not a seasoned shinobi? She had gone to school to train for these kinds of situations, and while she'd never _actually _been captured, she'd imagined it'd be a fairly straightforward process. Don't tell them anything about Konoha, don't make bonds with your captors, and get away as quickly as possible.

She surveyed the room. There were no windows and only one door, the one Deidara had come through. She walked to the wall closest to her, which was nearly completely hidden from sight by large paintings all over the walls, the canvases ranging from no bigger than her palm to nearly the size of the bed. She put her knuckles to an uncovered part of the wall and rapped hard twice on it, intently listening for a sound.

Very faintly, she heard her knock echo into the adjacent room. That meant on the other side of the wall was another room and not the outside. If she could find a side of the room that didn't have another room after it, she could probably break out and be far enough away by the time they noticed she wasn't here to make a safe escape. _Probably_.

She moved around the room and repeated the test to all four sides of the room, careful not to step on the oddly shaped objects that covered the room. The lights were off and each of them was covered with a sheet, so she couldn't make out what they were exactly, but one of them had a sharp spike sticking out from under the blankets. Sakura shuddered. She didn't even want to know.

_Well, great,_ she mentally groaned. _I'm surrounded on all four sides. I should have known. The Akatsuki wouldn't be that sloppy, after all. _

A knock on the door jolted her out of her thought.

"C-come in," she answered hesitantly. Why would they even bother knocking? This was _their _base!

A man walked in, clad in the usual Akatsuki attire, but something about him seemed familiar. Dark, blue-tinged hair, handsome yet expressionless face, and…the _sharingan?_

"Itachi," Sakura bit as the Uchiha closed the door behind him. The similarity to his brother was so surprising, she'd almost called him Sasuke. _How embarrassing would _that _be? _

His cold red eyes fell on her form, the intensity of his presence bearing down on her. Sakura stood her ground and brought her eyes up to meet the wall next to his face. She may be brave, but she wasn't stupid. No way was she looking directly into his eyes.

"What do _you _want from me?" she hissed angrily, taking a step forward. Not that intimidation tactics were likely to work on the Uchiha, especially the eldest one, but this was a battle of pride, and Sakura wouldn't back down from a challenge.

Itachi stared at her with eyes that seemed almost bored. "The leader has requested your presence in his office. One of the off-duty members will escort you there shortly."

"Itachi, you of all people here know I'll _never _help the Akatsuki. It's pointless to try and make me, because I promise you I _will _fuck any of you up if you let my chakra get anywhere near your body."

"That's unfortunate to hear. Luckily, I don't believe you," Itachi stated in a powerful, monotone voice that irritated Sakura to no end. And did he just _smirk_? Just as Sakura was about to come back with a witty retort, Itachi turned his back and exited the room, shutting the door silently as he left.

Sakura glared at the space where he had been. How _dare _he just walk out on her like that! She was in the middle of venting. You have to let a girl vent! Sakura growled and flopped back down on the bed, intent on getting some decent sleep and restoring her chakra before confronting the Akatsuki leader directly. This wasn't going to be pretty.

* * *

**A/N: **This chapter took a bit more time to come out, but it's longer so it's okay, right? ^^''

I'm taking online lessons this summer, so I'll still be pretty busy. T.T I think I'll be able to post once a week if I really make myself. You guys have been so supportive. ARIGATO!

[6/14/10]** EDIT:** Thanks, HeartofEmerald, for informing me that Deidara stopped saying yeah halfway through this. I fixed it. X3

Reviews this and I'll give you a cookie…and Akatsuki cookie. …Okay not really, but still. :D


	5. Frustration

Sakura curled up her fists brashly and bit her bottom lip. It had been who-knows-how-long, and still she hadn't been able to fall asleep. Not surprising. She was a captured kunoichi at the Akatsuki base. It was only natural that she felt _extremely _uneasy.

She swung her legs over the side of the bed. When her bare feet touched down on the cool floor, she suppressed a shiver. Slowly, her eyes fell to the objects scattered around the room hidden under dark blankets. If she was in the Akatsuki base, then that meant those things were probably torture devices of some sort.

_Although they have Itachi. Can't imagine why they'd really _need _torture devices. His Sharingan ―not to mention his lack of a personality― would be enough to get information out of anyone. _

She sighed to herself and checked around the room for a clock. She couldn't find one, but there was still light coming out from under the door to the rest of the base, so it was probably still light outside.

Stiffly, she wondered what would happen if she tried to escape. Would they kill her? Follow her back to Konoha? Follow her back to _Naruto_?

She stared hard at her hand, which was clenching the bed sheets beneath her so hard that she could almost feel her nails through the fabric. Was escaping a chance she was willing to take? If she stayed here, they were going to interrogate her and then kill her. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. That was just how things worked in the shinobi world. If she were to escape, however, they would either follow her back to her village or be forced to kill her. That way, at least there was a chance they wouldn't find out where Naruto was.

_Why did this have to be me_? she silently asked herself. _Not that I would have wished this on anyone else, but I know so much about the village! If they torture it out of me…_

She fell back down onto the bed with her legs hanging off the edge. Maybe she could keep the information to herself, even through the Akatsuki's torture.

_Be real, Sakura. You'll break. Anyone would break. _

"Naruto wouldn't break," she mumbled lowly to herself as her eyes slid shut. "Sasuke wouldn't break. Kakashi wouldn't break. But you're right, self. I _would _break. I'm such an awful shinobi." She turned her head to the side and buried her face in her arm. She didn't have a choice.

_I have to escape_.

She didn't know how long she laid there, but she guessed it was somewhere between fifteen to twenty minutes. From what she'd figured out, Itachi would be her biggest problem. If she accidentally ran into him in her pursuit of freedom, she'd be in his genjutsu faster than she could react. Deidara would probably be her best bet for getting out alive. He obviously had _some _kind of compassion in his heart, because he'd saved her from the prison. Either that, or he was incredibly naïve. In the confusion of seeing her, he'd probably be stunned for a second or so, giving her enough time to get around him and put some distance between them. While she would _love _to be able to get out of the base without any direct confrontation from any of the members, she figured that was so unlikely, it could almost be called impossible. As she got up from the bed and made her way cautiously toward the door, she took a steadying breath.

_It's okay Sakura. You can do this. You're the Hokage's apprentice. You're SAKURA HARUNO! You can do _anything_! _

She took a gulp and, before she had a chance to chicken out of it, twisted the door handle to the right and pulled hard.

A pair of red eyes met her jade ones.

_Well crap._

"Miss Haruno, that wouldn't be an escape attempt you're utterly failing at, would it?" Itachi asked smoothly.

Sakura's eyes fell and she stepped away from the door. She glared at his neck, trying to avoid his gaze, even though she was pretty sure she was already captured in his Sharingan. Her tone was cold and commanding, her small attempt to mask the fear at seeing the infamous eldest Uchiha brother. "What do you think, Uchiha? Maybe I just wanted to get a drink of water. I've been cooped up in that room this entire time."

Itachi raised an eyebrow at her. "You're acting surprisingly cavalier. Could it be that you're afraid of me?"

Sakura's eyes almost snapped up to meet his own, but she caught herself at the last second. "Why would I be afraid of you? Sure, you've got some fancy eyes, but I've got more power my punch than a thousand shinobi. Why would I be afraid of you?"

Itachi smirked and looked away from her. "Yes, why _would _you be afraid of me?" His eyes slid back to hers, which were still situated below his own gaze. "Leader wants to see you. I've been sent to fetch you. You can either come on your own free will or I can drag you there. Do you have a preference?"

Sakura swore she thought she heard the briefest shimmer of humor in that last question, but she rolled her eyes and ignored it. _Stop trying to relate to the enemy, Sakura_. "He only sent you?"

"Do you believe I require assistance?"

Sakura growled in frustration and stepped closer to the fearsome shinobi, still not meeting his gaze. "I believe you're underestimating me."

"Yo, Itachi. Is the girl still in there, yeah?" a voice drifted from down the hall with the familiar, highly annoying speech tick at the end of the sentence that made Sakura's eyes widen.

Itachi didn't take his eyes of the kunoichi as he replied, "Yes. Leader gave me orders to escort her to his office."

Deidara came into view behind Itachi and looked over the older man's shoulder at Sakura. She couldn't see his mouth, but his eyes gave away the amused expression on his face. "You look like crap, yeah."

"Thanks," Sakura muttered, unconsciously clenching her fists at her sides. Her gaze slid from glaring at Itachi to a piercing glower at Deidara. "You look like a woman."

He rolled his eyes. "Oh, you're _so_ original." He put one hand up against the doorframe, making Itachi's eyes flicker for the briefest moment to Deidara before his gaze snapped back onto Sakura. "Hey, if you wanna get ready for your mission, I'll take care of escorting the girl to Leader-sama's office."

"Leader assigned me to take the girl to his office, not you. Besides, you obviously have some kind of feelings for this girl if you brought her here instead of outright killing her. We have no real _need _of a medic."

_Was that _taunting _in Itachi's voice? Itachi, the emotionless…wait…_feelings_?_

Deidara tried to hide the light blush on his face by turning his head to the side a little as he snorted. "Right. I'm totally in love with this stupid broad I rescued _on instinct_ from being killed."

"_What _did you just call me?" Sakura shot, for a moment completely forgetting that she was talking to two outlaw shinobi in the Akatsuki base and probably the _worst _possible place for her to be losing her temper.

Itachi stepped out of the way a little, allowing Sakura to see the proud smirk plastered on Deidara's face. "I said: _Dumb. Broad._"

Sakura's fists clenched tighter at her sides and she took a step toward Deidara. "How _dare _you speak to me that way!"

Itachi looked from Deidara, who looked mildly intimidated but still in control, to Sakura, who looked like she was about ready to knock the blonde's head off. He took a deep breath and made a quick decision. "We can't have fighting at the base, especially amongst ourselves. Deidara, take Sakura to Leader. I've wasted enough time here." With that, Itachi turned and walked away, leaving a seething Sakura and a slowly becoming more frightened Deidara in his wake.

Deidara fought back a twitch of his eye as Sakura took another step towards him. "Look girly, you know you can't hurt me here. If you even try anything, I'll―"

He was cut off by a pale fisting connecting with his jaw hard enough to turn his head to the side, void of chakra but still very, _very _effective at shutting people up. His eyes widened and he brought one hand up to the spot where she'd punched him. He straightened his neck and looked back at Sakura. "You punched me. You _bitch_!"

Sakura breathed hard and stood up fully from her stance. "Don't mess with me, Deidara. You may think you're all that, but―"

Deidara wasn't in front of her anymore. She blinked in surprise and whipped around just as a kunai came flying at her from inside the room. Completely on reflex, she ducked under the flying piece of metal just before it imbedded itself in her skull. Instead, it landed with a loud _thwank_ in the wood of the hallway outside of "Sakura's" room.

Sakura followed the trail the kunai had taken to Deidara, who was sitting comfortably on the bed, his head leaning against his hand and his arm on an upraised knee. "What was that about me not being all that, yeah?"

"Oh shove it Deidara," she growled at him before turning toward the door. "You coming, or are you going to let me wander the Akatsuki base by myself?"

Deidara smirked placed both feet steadily on the floor before standing up to his full height. He strode over to where she stood waiting and brushed past her, his eyes glancing down at her as he passed. Whether intentionally or not (although it likely was), it forced Sakura to notice the height different between them. They had to be around the same age, yet Deidara was nearly a head taller than her and probably not finished growing yet. She sighed and trudged after him, imagining the next hour was going to be like a living hell…not that it already wasn't. It would just be _more _of a living hell. …Or a not-so-living hell if the leader decided she wasn't necessary.

_If he does, I have to at least try to escape. There's no way around it. I can't let them know everything I know about the village, about Naruto, not to mention my super chakra control. If all the Akatsuki were armed with super strength…_She shuddered at the thought of it, an action that caught Deidara's attention.

"Something wrong, yeah?" He asked, turning his head just enough to give her what _would _be a profile view of his face, if not for the blonde bang hanging in front of his left eye.

"No, yeah," she answered him with a roll of her eyes.

"Awful cocky now, aren't you? Don't remember you being that way when I rescued you from impending doom, yeah." He slowed down a little to let her catch up with him. He didn't look down at her, but Sakura could almost _feel _the arrogant glint in his azure eyes. "In fact, you were pretty helpless. I could have just let you die there, you know, yeah."

"Then why didn't you?" She asked softly, her eyes darting down to the floor below her feet. They'd gone through a number of hallways that all seemed to be the same, all with plain brown wooden floorboards and walls, every door shut, and not a single window. It would be easy to get lost in a building like this. "And why aren't I blindfolded. If I escape, or kill you right now, I could find my way around here a lot easier with my eyes than without them."

"I wouldn't bet on that, yeah. Even if you _could _escape from me, which you can't by the way, you would get lost, no doubt about it. Either that, or you'd run into someone on your way out, and you really wouldn't want to do that. Some of these people here are just…_heathens_, as a certain zealot would say," he said with a light shrug. "It'd be totally pointless, yeah."

"Okay. But you didn't answer my first question. Why did you―"

"We're here," he announced loudly. Sakura shut her mouth and looked from Deidara to the door they were standing directly in front of. Deidara didn't take his gaze off Sakura, even when she looked back to meet his eyes. "One piece of advice for you kid: Don't piss him off, yeah I didn't ask to be in this organization, but even I can acknowledge that this guy," he gestured to the door, "has some serious power, and I can respect that. You'd better to, or you won't last long."

"Why does it matter to you if I even come out of there at all?" she asked him, taking a hesitant step toward the door, her eyes flickering from the wood panel to Deidara again.

He smirked and reached a hand over her head to wrap on the door with his knuckles. "Cuz it's a lot of fun to mess with you."

"Enter," came a dark voice from the other room, calling Sakura's attention back to the door before her. With a sigh, Deidara twisted the handle and pushed the door open.

"Good luck, kid, yeah."

* * *

**A/N: **I can't wait for Sakura to meet the rest of the Akatsuki! Wonder what Leader-sama's gonna decide to do with her. 3

Itachi, you little weasel. But that's why we love you. X3


	6. Confrontation

Sakura stepped into the dark room with weary eyes. The void, the complete _emptiness_ wrapped around her and seemed to suffocate her. Her fists clenched at her sides, automatically going into kunoichi mode even though she knew it wouldn't help her a bit. Not in this nothingness. _How can anyone live in these conditions? It's like this guy's a vampire or something._

A sound broke through the silence, the distant clicking of the door behind her as Deidara shut it. The sound made her stiffen with anxiety, which was only made worse when that same voice as before, the one that didn't seem _that _intimidating with Deidara next to her, spoke into the darkness all around her, seeming to be as comfortable with it as if it were his own cloths.

"I see you've finally arrived, Haruno."

_How can you _**see** _anything, you creep? _Sakura inched herself closer to the door, her hand subconsciously rising to get closer to the handle. _Where the hell is he? _She pressed her lips together and listened hard from which direction his voice was coming from.

His deep voice chuckled in an almost mocking way. "It was a use of metaphoric irony, cherry blossom. Of course I can't _actually _see you."

Sakura bit back a gasp. She hadn't said that out loud, had she? "How did you…"

"I'm not a mind reader, if that's what you're thinking." Which it was. "Just extremely intuitive." The voice drifted closer to her, and Sakura swore she could almost make out the outline of a cloaked man standing in front of her. "I've heard great things about you, Haruno. Your strength, your chakra control and, of course, let's not forget your temper. I see you as being a valuable ally to the Akatsuki, but an unnecessary one. I'm sure you've been informed of that already."

"Yes," she bit cheekily, the edges of her words clipped. "I'm going to tell you upfront, you might as well kill me. I'm _not _going to work for you Akatsuki swine, not even if my life depended on it―"

"Which it does, may I remind you," Leader-sama broke, his tone turned more serious and his voice dropped in volume until it was just above a whisper. The sudden change in him made Sakura stall her words for a brief moment, which Leader-sama took advantage of. "Look, Haruno, you want to get back to Konoha, right?"

Temporarily forgetting the nature of the man standing before her, she scoffed. "You said you're intuitive, right? Well you should be able to _intuit _that without me saying it."

"My my, Haruno. Your irritability did precede you, but to think you would mouth off to the leader of the most powerful organization to ever be formed is…surprising to say the least. Please, do remember your place."

Sakura didn't know how or when he did it, but somehow she found herself lifted and thrown against the wall roughly by a seemingly invisible force. The pressure clutched at her throat and constricted her airway. She tried choking out something, but it came out as a breathy garble and focused instead on conserving her breath for when ―if― she was let go. She continued to claw at her throat as Leader-sama spoke.

"Now, Haruno, if you would be so kind as to keep your trap shut when it needs keeping shut, we can continue our little talk." With a flick of his wrist, the outline of which she could just barely make out in the darkness, she was released. Sakura fell heavily onto the floor below her with a huge gasp for air. She bent over herself and clutched her diaphragm, hacking as she tried to regain her breath. Leader-sama watched her in silence as she slowly righted herself, still breathing heavily, and sent him a deep glare that ran to the core of her soul. There was one thing that was definitely true about her.

She hated him.

And he was okay with that.

Leader-sama took in her appearance. Yes, she obviously had a fire in her heart, the same ridiculous sense of loyalty that came with being a shinobi of the Leaf. Still, there was something else in those jade eyes of hers. Something long since hidden, but still there nonetheless. Something…truculent. And _that _was something rare in a medical shinobi. Leader-sama lightly shook his head and came to a quick decision. "You _will _stay with the Akatsuki. You _will _assist us on missions. And you _will _obey my orders, understood, Haruno?" He took a step toward her as a dim light came on above them, casting shadows over his figure while leaving her cloaked in darkness. "I will not tolerate insolence. I will not tolerate failure. Demonstrate either one of those qualities and you will find your short remaining time at the Akatsuki to be a very painful experience." He swiftly turned his back to her and raised his voice. "Deidara, you may take her back to her room. I have no further need of her."

The door opened silently and the blonde stepped in. His eyes narrowed for a moment as they tried to adjust to the near darkness. Spotting Sakura slightly hunched over against the adjacent wall, he made his way over to her.

"Come with me, Sakura. You've done enough, yeah," he said calmly with a glance from Leader-sama to Sakura. He thought their meeting would've lasted a lot longer. Evidently, something happened.

Sakura glared at him with an angry look of exhaustion across her face. What she'd really like to do right now was punch the shadowed leader as hard as she could in the face and then promptly explainto him (with her fists, preferably) how she was _never _going to help him. However, Sakura was no fool. She understood what kind of power this man had and what would happen to her if she made a move toward him, so she instead settled for an irritated roll of her eyes and a dirty word under her breath. She turned toward Deidara and followed him out the door, hissing slightly as a sharp pain from her leg nearly caused her to tumble to the floor.

Hearing the noise, Deidara spun around quickly and caught onto Sakura's hand as she pitched forward. Sakura took a step forward to keep her balance, which nearly caused her to run headfirst into Deidara's chest. Sakura's eyes widened and she looked up into Deidara's azure eyes, which looked back down at hers with a hesitant curiosity. The two stood there a moment, so close but not quite touching, before Leader-sama cleared his throat. The pair broke apart awkwardly and Deidara turned away with a sharp twist of his feet. He retreated out the door, followed not-so-closely by Sakura. The door shut behind them and the room was once again cast into a black night.

Leader-sama closed his eyes and breathed out. That was more…interesting than it planned to be. Of course, Haruno turned out to be a truly remarkable person, yet…"Love breeds sacrifice, which breeds hatred." Leader-sama's stoic gaze fell to the door. "And I think Deidara loves that woman."

Oh yes, this was going to be very interesting indeed.

Sakura's eyes traveled across the floor as she wordlessly trailed after Deidara. Part of her (the only sane part left, she was sure) saw that this might be a good opportunity to escape, while Deidara had his guard down (at least she hoped he did). However, the other part, the bigger part, wanted her to stay.

_To gather information_, she rationalized with herself as they came around a corner.

Just then, something caught her eye. So far, every door she'd seen in the base had been shut tightly and securely. Truthfully, she'd been a little curious as to why there were so many rooms if there were only ever ten Akatsuki members at the base, but she'd kept her mouth shut, half with anger and half with a well-supported fear. Now that they were steadily nearing the door and there was a chance to discover what was behind door number one…

What she saw made her stop in her tracks.

* * *

**A/N: **First line of the next chapter, anyone?

_"Oye, Hidan. Keep the damn door shut. We have a guest, yeah."_

Sounds like a party. XD Sorry I haven't updated in a _loooooong_ time. I know I say that every time, but guess what!

...

...

You're not gonna guess?

T.T

WELL FINE THEN. I'm finished with my online school! :D That means I can devote more time to my story and my lovely reviewers. You all get Akatsuki-shaped-invisible-cinnomony-fudge-dipped-Invader-Zim-with-fancy-sprinkles cookies and milk! ...Evil milk. :D

Ja, ne! ^.^


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